Res ipsa loquitur ("The thing itself speaks")

Shrine Mont Bound

There will be a delay in any postings this weekend due to my annual trip with the family to Shrinemont, a retreat in the mountains of Virginia.

Every year, the Turleys join a group of other families in a retreat to the cabins of Shrine Mont where the kids hunt salamanders and hike up the mountain. Shrine Mont is located in Orkney Springs, Virginia — run by the Diocese of Virginia. While we are expecting rain all weekend, we intend to persevere in the elements.

11 thoughts on “Shrine Mont Bound”

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Many of my fondest childhood memories involve the yearly 6 week camping trips with my parents and three brothers. There’s nothing like opening the tent flap to an early morning dew with the smell of frying bacon and boiling coffee in the air. By the time I was 14 we had visited almost every historical site in the lower 48.

When I was a lad, my brother and I spent two summers at Camp Bear Wallow at the Orkney Springs hotel. We stayed in the buildings next to the hotel named for VA cities. The Portlocks owned the hotel then. Lots of great memories.

Take lots of pictures of the kids. We used to take the kids to Wisconsin with my sisters and Brother and all of their kids and my grown kids still talk about it to this day. Even my Mom would come along and we would have a great time as a family without doing too much except fishing, swimming and reading. And an occasional libation or two. Have fun.

I’ve been there for conferences. Wonderful place, very old fashioned and rustic. Like an old fashioned turn of century resort. Have a great time. This type of experience is wonderful for city bound kids, I should know.

Four generations of my family went to a similar place, Winter Clove, in the Catskills [not the Borsht belt] every summer throughout my childhood. It was one of the highights of the year for me as a kid.

As you know, these places were originally built as a refuge from the heat. My grandmother, father and aunt would spend the whole summer there, with grandfather coming up on the weekends. No booze allowed and hymn time every Sunday night. Air conditioning killed a lot of these places, but the one I and my family went to is still prospering.